Economy

  The national Better Business Bureau released the top 10 reported scams of 2015, and tax-related fraud tops the list. Ohio Public Radio’s Andy Chow reports.

Nearly one-in-four scams reported to the Better Business Bureau were tax-related. The BBB says imposters would call people, pretend to be with the IRS, and tell the victims they would be thrown in jail if they didn’t pay them.

 During the last decade, Northeast Ohio’s stature as a bio-medical innovation and production hub has grown to rival Minneapolis, the historic Midwest frontrunner. As part of our series, “The Business of Health,” WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier looks at what’s fueling the rising economic role of the region’s bio-medical industry.

After searching the country for a place to start a business, in 2009  Jake Orville chose Northeast Ohio.

Northeast Ohio home sales are up about 14 percent from the same time last year. That’s according to the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service, which lists properties for 18 counties. WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier reports.

Carl DeMusz of the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service says in recent years the region has seen a slow but steady home-sales increase.  But in the last year he says the number of homes on the market has increased considerably.

About 20 protestors showed up at FirstEnergy headquarters in Akron today to send a holiday message to CEO Charles Jones. WKSU's Kabir Bhatia reports.

FirstEnergy is asking the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for a new rate plan that would subsidize its Sammis coal plant near Steubenville and the Davis-Besse nuclear plant.

But the protestors gathered by the Ohio Organizing Collaborative say that’s a bad deal for consumers. They made the point by bringing FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones a stocking filled not with coal, but with LED bulbs.

The Ohio treasurer's searchable website tracking expenditures includes many local and state agencies, but some entities had been missing. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports, that's changed now. 

In a span of just five days, Treasurer Josh Mandel went from having just one state pension system on his Ohiocheckbook.com site to having all five. He says that makes Ohio the first state to have this kind of transparency with all its retirement systems.

Half-a-dozen Cleveland buildings are on the list of state historic tax credit winners announced today. One of the Downtown Cleveland recipients is the Huntington Bank building. WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier reports.   

A Florida development group wants to spend $270 million converting the Huntington Building into apartments, a hotel and retail space. That project was awarded $25 million in historic tax credits.   

 Terry Schwarz is director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. She says historic tax credits are responsible for much of the renovation in downtown areas nationwide. And she says of the six structures on Cleveland’s latest list, the Huntington Building is the most significant.

“Because that building has been under-utilized for some time. And with the growing residential demand for the core city, it’s such a great opportunity to bring more people and contribute to the downtown revival.”

Downtown’s Cleveland Athletic Club also received a historic tax credit to help with its conversion into apartments. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company headquarters in Akron missed out on a tax credit. Developers want to convert that building to mixed use.

 The Omnibus spending bill now in Congress includes language preventing the Army Corps of Engineers from dumping dredged material into Lake Erie.

Ohio's U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown acknowledges that dredging the Cuyahoga River is needed to maintain shipping lanes, and says dredging should be used only as a last resort, and even then only with permitting by the EPA. He adds that much of Lake Erie is simply too shallow for dumping to be an option.

Akron-based FirstEnergy's proposed rate plan is still being reviewed by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, a proposal that's drawn criticism from environmentalists and even clergy and some business groups.  WKSU's Kabir Bhatia reports.

The eight-year agreement asks that FirstEnergy’s subsidiaries buy all the power from its Sammis coal plant near Steubenville and the Davis-Besse nuclear plant, since the company says those plants cannot otherwise remain competitive and would have to be closed.

More hearings have been scheduled by the Public Utilities Commission on FirstEnergy's proposed rate plan, a plan that's drawn criticism from environmentalists, clergy and some business groups. WKSU's Kabir Bhatia reports.

Akron-based FirstEnergy wants an eight-year agreement that forces its subsidiaries to buy all the power produced by its Sammis coal plant near Steubenville and the Davis-Besse nuclear plant. The Public Utilities Commission has another round of hearings scheduled to start Jan. 14, a year after it began considering the plan.

Ward 8 Councilman Mike Polensek says it’s clear from where he’s standing at the corner of East 105th and St. Clair Avenue.

“This section of Glenville is a food desert.” 

Glenville residents are among 23.5 million Americans who live in what the USDA calls a “food desert.”

That is:  a low-income neighborhood where at least a third of the population lives a mile from a grocery store.

“We need a grocery store here,” says Councilman Polensek.    

Supermarkets deserted the food desert

A new study by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth shows student-loan debt and delinquency rates vary greatly in the U.S.

The study breaks down average student loan balances and delinquency rates by zip code.

In Cleveland, the average student-loan balance ranges from “moderately low” to “average.” The average delinquency rate, however, ranges from “somewhat high” to “very high.”

It’s being called an inventor’s paradise. 

ThinkBox is a fully outfitted makerspace on the Case Western Reserve University campus with millions of dollars’ worth of equipment free for students and the public to use.

In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St. Clair tours the place that’s providing tools for Northeast Ohio’s newest entrepreneurs.

Organizational theorist Richard Boyatzis was recently named one of the world’s most influential thinkers in human resources management.

But Boytzis does not think of employees as "resources."  He says they’re people, and effective managers treat them that way.  

In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair sat down with Boyatzis to learn how a manager’s way of thinking can either motivate people or shut them down.